just like mine!!

I didn't see this pic until after I had decided on a color, but I like the look of this truck. It belongs to a member here, coronet1966d. I thought about blacking my grill and bumpers out, but decided against it. I can always do it later if I change my mind. I like the look of his truck though.

Great news. I stopped next to a body shop to take a look at a dog house that was for sale. Bought the dog house and started chatting with a guy wearing a t short with the logo on it from the body shop. Figured he worked there. Told him about how I was interested in learning paint and body, that I was working on a truck, yada yada and small talk. Nice guy. Turns out he's the owner and he offered to let me come in on the weekends to learn the trade, teach me some tricks etc. I'm pumped, can't wait.

Next update. Finally had a chance to put in some more work. This is coat #3 after doing some sanding. I sanded too aggressively in a couple of spots and went too low so you'll see that, especially where I was trying to sand away a run by my passenger door. I think I'm going to be a lot less aggressive sanding from here on out and either stay away from edges as I knock down the little orange peel that I get, or not even worry about orange peel and only scuff it enough for the paint to grab every two layers.

Starting to get better coverage and I figured out how to get better coats with less roller lines. Before I was working smaller areas maybe 36x36" as I worked my way around the truck. That particular area was really smooth but you would see lines from area to area because of the paint starting to set. This time I would work really fast to cover an entire panel then go back over to knock down bubbles/level the paint. It made for much better smoothness and uniformity on the panels without that segmented look.

Next update. Here is after coat 4 with everything prepped to do the black accent at the bottom of the body, and the DODGE on the tailgate. Im still deciding on a butt stripe as well. Im leaning towards yes... It was late so I just took these to show the prep work. I haven't decided if Im going to do another coat of gray to the body or not. It looks good but because I was less aggressive with my sanding, there is a pretty good level of orange peel. Not a lot, about equal to the factory job on modern cars. Its just that I know that I can get it smoother if I want to, which will make my final buffing/polishing turn out a better shine/reflection. Im just so ready to drive it that I don't wanna wait. Decisions....
Im either going to leave it like it is, or go back and wetsand with 600 grit, then one final coat. This black should go really fast because its such a small area, I can get 2 coats in per day about 12 hours apart. Then I can move on to the rustoleum roll on bedliner, and I want to have my sliding back glass replaced with a one piece.

Overall I think Im leaning towards sanding and doing one more coat of gray with less peel.

Oh, and I still have to do the cowl vent.





This part was time consuming, taping it up and then cutting the letters out with a razor blade was nerve wracking. I'd never done anything similar to this.

don't know if you know, but you can get decals for the letters. looking good, and don't sweat the 'peel, it will go away with some cut & buff action.

Haha, no I didn't know that. Might have kept me from being so nervous as I cut away the tape. All I kept picturing was my hand slipping and leaving a long slice in my nice paint

i know the feeling. on my last li'l red express truck, i repainted the dodge letters on the grill, using the same method you used on the tailgate. i also did the black bars, between the horizontal grill pieces. it was like, 3 hours of taping and cutting, for 2 minutes of painting.

Ok, here are some pics of the truck as it sits now. So far Im happy with the results. The finish right now is without sanding, polishing or waxing. Its just the natural gloss of the paint. Im probably going to lightly sand and hit the black with two more coats, then see where it stands. But so far Im happy with my $100 paintjob.

From this:



To this:



Its funny how much getting the black on there made the truck look so much more complete.




Those are cloud reflections you see, not paint issues. I'll try to get some pics while its still sunny out.








Cloud reflections



This is the worst spot on the truck. I had sprayed the body line with spray bomb to get in there, and a 10 minutes later while rolling I forgot and rolled back over it and it caused the paint to wrinkle.


Next up is rolling on some Rustoleum bedliner. This whole truck is going to be the product of rustoleum products and a roller

swweeettt!!!



I see you in the door reflection..I thought you would have been taller.

that's some pretty good reflections, I know the pics dull it down some but I bet it is real nice up close.

thats pretty impressive for rustoluem and a roller

i'm wondering if it's rustoleum topsider. we've been painting boats with it down here, and if you follow the directions exactly, it comes put looking like a sprayed paint.

Thanks guys. Its been fun learning and trying this method. Best of all it let's me get this truck looking better very cheaply. Right now I'm in this truck for $1500 purchase price and $100 in paint supplies, and about $70 for 2 used tires. It looks really good in person. And because I can touch it up whenever at no cost I won't worry about driving it anywhere or doing anything in it.

As far as the paint its just rustoleum from Home Depot. I used their clean metal primer over the whole truck, the gray is standard rustoleum, and the black is the rustoleum professional. I wanted to get them the same but I had to order the gray and didn't realize it was the standard stuff. But its all worked out so far.

I didn't expect it to look this good but I'm glad it does. I can't wait to see what the cut, buff and wax makes it look like.

Well here are some pics after working on it all day yesterday. I would have more done but I was layed up all day with naseau/vomiting/diarrhea . Please excuse the grass, today was yard day but because of the NVD I didn't get to it. I still need to paint the cowl vent panel,re-install the bumpers, add the chrome drip rail molding, and do the bed in rustoleum. Then I'll start on the interior. Im going to keep it burgundy. The dash is pretty nice so I'll either clean up my door panels and dye them with aerosol stuff from the parts store, or pull some better ones from the J/Y and do the same. Then I'll just shampoo and detail it really well and drive the wheels off. And I want to have a one piece rear glass put in. Im going to have to stop myself so I don't sink more money into this than I planned on.

Im really excited about how the trim came out. The metal portion was really, really bad looking. It was yellowed, and dirty. I honestly didn't think that it would come clean. But I mixed some dawn dish soap with some Purple Power, and used a red scothbrite pad to scrub it and with some elbow grease they came out nice. Just have to hit it with some polish now.

Ok, Im done babbling now:

Good Color Combo!

hope you feel better soon. the big 3 is never fun.

that thing looks better every new pic you post.

Wow Roe! That REALLY looks good!

what time can I drop my truck off? It's only a shortbed, so you can probably knock that off in no time. I'll take the grey too